Video: Accessing dynamically related files

One of the key features for working with CMS systems like WordPress is known as dynamically-related files. The related files feature, which was introduced in Dreamweaver CS4, made directly linked files like CSS, JavaScript, and PHP just one click away. Now with dynamically-related files you can access nested PHP files just as easily. For example, let's open up the index.php file from the blog root, and here I am in Design view because we were last working in the Designer workspace, and you'll notice that, as before, the page is blank.

In this course, author Joseph Lowery shows how to combine the utility of WordPress and the power of Adobe Dreamweaver to transition existing websites to the WordPress platform. The course demonstrates how to create new blog posts and pages, customize WordPress themes, and extend WordPress editable pages from within Dreamweaver. It also covers how to add Spry elements, add and customize plugins, and enhance WordPress-stored content with Dreamweaver's dynamic pages. Plus, a chapter on responsive design shows how you can adapt your layouts for tablets and mobile devices.

Topics include:

Using the Dynamically-Related Files feature in Dreamweaver to design WordPress pages

Accessing dynamically related files

One of the key features for working with CMS systems like WordPress is known as dynamically-related files.The related files feature, which was introduced in Dreamweaver CS4, made directly linked fileslike CSS, JavaScript, and PHP just one click away.Now with dynamically-related files you can access nested PHP files just as easily.For example, let's open up the index.php file from the blog root, and here I am in Designview because we were last working in the Designer workspace, and you'll notice that, as before, the page is blank.

So I'm going to switch over to Split view and then broaden the code window a littlebit, and you'll see that this is comprised of a fair number of PHP comments right upfront, as well as two other little code snippets.The first one defines a variable as true and the second one requires one file.And you can see up here in the related files toolbar I do have that file included wp-blog-header.php,and if I click to that--let me lower the Properties Inspector here so you can see a bit more code.

There's not a whole lot of code to see.It's just a kind of switch statement that allows WordPress to load in one file or another.Without the dynamically-related files feature this is as far as you could go.The way that WordPress works is that it will continue down this path of bringing in nestedPHP files one after the other.As you'll soon see there are over 70 different files related to just this one page.Now we can expose all of those files and get access to them through the dynamically-related files feature.

Up here in the Info bar you'll see a message that says this page may have dynamically-relatedfiles that can only be discovered by the server, and a couple of link options, Discover and Preferences.In Preferences, you can set the options so that this happens automatically.I tend to like it so that you have to do it manually each time because then if I'm notinterested in seeing the additional files I don't have to worry about them, but wherethe real magic is is by clicking on Discover, which I'll do right now.Now you'll get a script warning from Dreamweaver saying that it was going to run this throughthe server, and if you want to proceed click Yes.

Well, we definitely do, so let's click Yes, and you can see in the Related Files Toolbarthat stretches across the top of the page that there's a whole range of files whichhave been dynamically discovered.In fact, there is so many that they have extended off the page.I can click the Scroll button here and the files will scroll across, and I can also go back if I need to.Sometimes this is handy for locating a specific file, but in this case, there's an awful lotof files, and you can see them all, well as many as will fit on the screen by clickingthe Show More option here in the right-hand side of the document window.

And there you see the first group of files.I'll go down and hover over the Scroll button so we can go all the way down to the bottom of them.As you can see, there are just an amazing number of files that are interconnected here.WordPress, as I said, uses about 70 different files in its default page, all of which areavailable to you in Dreamweaver.You can access them directly just by clicking on any of the files here, and they'll showup right in Code view.Let's go to media.php, and here's the WordPress API for Media display.

If you want to dive in for a closer feel, feel free to click on Code view to expandthe page and then start to look for various PHP functions that you could find on the page.I'll just scroll down a little bit and the first function that we see here constrainsthe image size for the editor. There are many other types of pages as well.There is CSS, scroll back to the very top of the file we should see a CSS one closeto the start, and here's our CSS page.And there are also XML files, all of them are immediately accessible through dynamically-related files.

So now that you know how to access some of the deeply linked files used in WordPress,you'll be able to customize your site easier than ever.

Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Dreamweaver and WordPress: Core Concepts .

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Q: While trying to set up a Dreamweaver site, an error occurs that says Dreamweaver cannot resolve the dynamic files because the site definition is incorrect. What is causing this? This is using WAMP on a Windows 7 computer.

A: When setting up the site in Dreamweaver and creating a local testing server, make sure to point it to the folder in c:/wamp/www/ that is being used for the site. If using the same naming convention as shown in the videos, the server folder should be pointing to C:\wamp\www\explore_ca\ and the Web URL field should read http://localhost/explore_ca/, like the picture here:

Q: How do I set the password for WAMP Server 2?

A: The WAMP server does not include a password for MySQL when first installed. You’ll need to add a password by modifying a configuration text file and set up a password in the MySQL server.
Setting a password on the MySQL server:

From the Start menu, enter CMD to open the command line interface.

Switch to the bin directory of your MySQL folder, installed by WAMP. For version 5.1.36 of MySQL, for example, enter cd c:\wamp\bin\mysql\mysql5.1.36\bin
Navigate within the WAMP folder installed on your system to find the proper path.

Enter the following: mysql -u root

The command line for MySQL will open with a mysql prompt like this: mysql>

Enter the following:
SET PASSWORD for 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('yourPassword');
- replace 'yourPassword' with the password you want to use.

Close the CMD window.

Setting the password in the phpMyAdmin config file:
After you change the MySQL password you will have to edit the config.inc.php file. Here's how:

In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\wamp\apps\phpmyadmin3.2.0.1 (version number may vary).

Open the file config.inc.php in Dreamweaver or another text editor.

Locate the following line:
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = '';

Enter your password between the quotes; make sure the password is the same as the one you set in the MySQL server.

Save the file.

From the system tray icon for WAMP, choose Restart All Services.

To test, choose phpMyAdmin from the WAMP system tray icon.

Q: After creating a template following the instructions in the Chapter 5 video “Creating a page template in Dreamweaver,” I am unable to select the template. In the video, the instructor’s page shows a heading of Template, with a dropdown menu, but my version shows only a dropdown labeled “Attributes,” and the newly created template does not appear. What is causing this issue?

A: This seems to be a bug in WordPress that occurs occasionally. Although a cause has yet to be determined, a possible workaround to get the Template option to appear is switch themes. Switching to the default theme and then back again to Explore_California should reveal the Template option.

Q: While following along with the instructions in the "Setting up a MySQL password for Windows," I encountered this error: MySQL said: "#1045 – Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’ (using password: NO)" What is causing this error?

A: This error occurs when trying to enter the MySQL monitor with a password for a user who has not set a password yet. In that case, removing the “-u root” part should resolve the problem.

Q: While following along to the chapter 2 movie "Using dynamically related files," I get an error message that reads: "Dynamically-related files could not be resolved because the site definition is not correct for this server." What is causing this error?

A: This is a known issue with Dreamweaver, and relates to the permalink settings in the WordPress installation. If the permalink setting is set to something other than the default, like “Month & Name,” for example, Dreamweaver is unable to resolve the dynamic files, and the described error will occur. Changing the permalink setting back to Default will clear the error.

Q: I am bit confused as to my need to use MAMP with a WordPress site in Dreamweaver. If I am going to use a separate commercial hosting site as my server, do I still need to use MAMP in my WordPress site?

A: MAMP is installed to provide an easy-to-use development server capable of handling MySQL and PHP on your local computer. It's also possible to set up MySQL and PHP servers separately, but it requires many more steps and is not as "user-friendly" as the described process. Your hosting server will have MySQL/PHP enabled on their servers for the remote live setup, but that doesn't have anything to do with developing and testing pages on your own computer.

Q: I can't find the file named commevents.php in the exercise files. I need it to set up an online database in the last chapter.

A: This is a file you create yourself when you first connect to a database. Refer to the "Adding WordPress dynamic data to pages" video in Chapter 7. commevents.php should appear in the Connections folder once you establish a connection.

Q: In "Setting up a MySQL password for Windows", I'm getting the error "#1045 - Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'" when testing the phpMyAdmin.

If I try and re-do the steps, I get the following error "ERROR 1044 (42000): Access denied for user ''@'localhost' to database mysql'" when I try to change the password.

A: This seems to be happening because of the combination of Windows 7 and a
new version of WampServer 2.1. Here's another approach that should work
for the new combination.

Follow these steps instead of the ones using the CMD prompt. (As a bonus, they're much easier!)

Left-click on the WampServer icon tray.

Choose phpMyAdmin.

When the phpMyAdmin page opens in your browser, click the Privileges tab found after the Engines tab.

Locate the line in the User table with "root - localhost - No..." (probably the last one).

Now follow the rest of the steps in "Setting up a MySQL password for Windows" video, starting at the 4:13 mark. This is where you use a text editor to make a change in the config.inc PHP file and restart all WampServer services when you're done.

Q: I want to setup the practice files and site on my localhost, as described; however, I already have my current WordPress site (under development) running on my localhost. How do I run two WordPress sites on my localhost?

A: You can easily do it by setting up another site in Dreamweaver. Just copy the WordPress files to that folder as described and establish a new database via phpMyAdmin. You can set up as many WordPress sites as you need to. The author has upwards of 80 on his system, all for different clients.

Q: This course was updated on 10/23/2012. What changed?

A: The course was thoroughly revised and uses the most current versions of both programs. We added chapters on responsive design and creating a custom administration panel in WordPress, new movies about concepts and taxonomies, and extended the Spry chapter to include jQuery, among other changes. New movies are indicated by the NEW tag next to the movie name.

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